As he stands in line at Starbucks, senior Gerson Lanza, 22, begins to tap his feet. It’s not noticeable among the busy patrons, but anyone who knows Lanza wouldn’t be surprised…he rarely stands still. A celebrity of sorts among the Wake Forest crowd, Lanza has made a name for himself as an extraordinary tap dancer, the student with the largest cheering section whenever he performs. But his story didn’t begin with a love for tap dance, in fact, it didn’t even begin in the United States! Lanza opens up to HCWFU about his childhood, tap influences, and how he came to find Wake Forest University.
On growing up in Honduras with his two brothers and half-sister.
I was born and raised in La Ceiba, Honduras, and lived there until I was 11 years old. I loved my childhood. My family was average, not rich. Our creative innovations were sling-shots and kites. My mom came to the States 6 months after my birth. Her goal had always been to pursue the American dream. My mom wasn’t there, but my dad was raising us [2 brothers 27 and 25, half-sister, 30]. Every time she called us she would say, “One day we will be together,” every single time. [In 2001] she got all of us residency in the States.
On living in New York without knowing any English.
I started 5th grade in the Bronx [New York City]. Then we moved to Harlem, and my mom put me in an all-English middle school. It was tough. I was the target for everybody because I didn’t know any English. Coming from a third-world country where the streets were not even paved to being in this concrete jungle, the city? I didn’t know what to do. It was a struggle until I got to the 8th grade and I began making friends and talking to people, which was totally out of my comfort zone. But now, I’m doing a better job at that (smiles and saying hello to the 6th friend he has seen during the interview).
Introduction to tap dance.
The high school that I went to was a performing and visual arts high school [Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Harlem] so that’s how I was introduced to dance, because it was required for you to take music, art, and dance classes. The first year, I didn’t do tap dance because I didn’t have the guts to get in there. The fact that they don’t seem to move their feet but they make a lot of noise hooked me. [I wondered] “How can they do that? I want to do that!”
Moving to the Harlem School of the Arts.
My friend Joshua Johnson and I liked to crash parties, just walk in wherever. One day, we needed a place to practice our steps. So me and Joshua walked over to Harlem School of the Arts and literally just walked right in. We just went into an empty studio and we worked the routine. And next thing you know, someone was at the door, the director of the dance program. She said “Are you guys interested in coming here?” We said we would love to come here but couldn’t afford the $500 tuition. “Well, we’ll work it out,” she told us. “No problem. We’ll give you scholarships.”
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On his tap influences.
When I started tap-dancing, [my tap icon] was Savion Glover. But I also love this guy by the name of Chuck Green. His musicality and rhythm is just amazing and he’s always able to tell a story with his dancing. Also, Jimmy Slyde, his name says it all because he’s able to slide from one side of the stage to the other.
How he became a student at Wake Forest University.
At my high school, there was a huge population of Latinos and Blacks, and we did a college tour that went down south and visited all of these predominately black schools. We visited Winston-Salem State, but not Wake Forest. However, we took a break at Hanes Mall and one of my friends went over to the Deacon shop to purchase a pair of basketball shorts and at that time, they had a poster of Tim Duncan [black NBA player and Wake alum] which made me curious. And for a college experience, I always wanted one-on-one interactions with the professors, but at the same time a Division I sports school. Dance did not have an effect on my college choice. If I were thinking of dance in college, I probably would have stayed in New York City.
Although a double major in History and Spanish, dance has made a huge impact on his time at Wake.
Nina Lucas [dance director at Wake] has been an amazing inspiration and a great support when it comes to schoolwork and tap dancing. She has found outlets in the community for me to share my tap dancing and because of her I now teach at a local dance studio called Emotion Dance Center. I’ve been teaching there for the past two years. Tap dancing has been looked at [in the past] as something that is just for girls, but I guess I’ve made it more appealing to guys here at Wake Forest. At Emotion, I’ve finally got a dude in my class!
Remembering his workouts on a piece of plywood outside his dorm freshman year.
That was workout, I had to do it! We don’t have a wooden-floor studio here because the tap dancing community at Wake is not big, so I had to tap somewhere.
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Going to Brazil on the Richter Scholarship.
I always wanted to travel to Brazil and see if there was anybody tap-dancing there. My proposal was to identify Brazilian art forms that have influenced tap-dancing. The reason I became interested on Brazil, specifically, was because whenever I went to tap dance festivals in LA or DC, there was a huge population from Brazil. They would obtain visas just to [come to the festivals]. The tap dance community is not as small as I thought it was. It has been globalized.
Favorite memory of Brazil.
I went to this one place in Brazil called Lapa, a huge party zone. It’s not a street, it’s not two streets, it’s an entire community. And there, I saw these people, kids my age and younger, out on the floor with these beautiful Brazilian women. I didn’t even dance that night, I just sat down and observed. Think about salsa, but to the 5th power. Their musicality is amazing.
On what the future holds.
I don’t have any plans for after school. I need to figure out what’s next on my path, whether its dance or continuing with history or Spanish. I’m going to continue dancing, believe me! But I don’t know if it’s going to be my career. I’ve always been interested in law. I worked at the New York City Bar Association. But I would like to do entertainment law. So then I can be a tap dancer and write my own contracts!
“The first time I met Gerson, he was a freshman, and he literally “popped” into my office wearing a set of headphones and had this big Afro and said “Hi my name is Gerson Lanza, I am a Tap Dancer. How can I get involved?” The truth is, he is a mentor and an inspiration to me.”
-Nina Lucas (Director of Dance at Wake Forest)
“Gerson’s dancing is hypnotic, I can’t look away or focus on anything else when I watch him rehearse and perform. Between the rhythms he creates and his charisma onstage, it’s hard not to love watching him.”
-Lauren Hiznay (Wake Forest Senior)